1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital imaging apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a digital imaging apparatus for creating a natural-looking panorama image by connecting images that are converted using lens distortion information and exchangeable image file (EXIF) information, and a panorama image creating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general photographing apparatus has a limited image size that can be represented in one shot. Therefore, in order to form a wider-angled image, a plurality of still images are connected with each other. Such a technique is referred to as a ‘panorama image’.
Recently, the ‘panorama image’ function has also been introduced into digital cameras and digital camcorders.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional digital imaging apparatus that is capable of creating a panorama image.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional digital imaging apparatus comprises a lens 10 for optically acquiring an image of an object, a charge-coupled device (CCD) 20 for converting an output from the lens 10 into digital information, a first storage part 30 for storing an output from the CCD 20, a panorama image generation part 40 for detecting and connecting the boundaries of a plurality of images stored to the first storage part 30, and a second storage part 50 for storing the panorama images generated in the panorama image generation part 40.
The digital images captured by the above-structured digital imaging apparatus can be reviewed in a real time basis. Therefore, the boundaries between the images are detected using the image information of the plurality of images, and a new image is formed by connecting the detected boundaries of the images.
To be more specific, the conventional digital imaging apparatus stores data of a plurality of still images captured by the lens 10 and the CCD 20 to the first storage part 30, detects the boundaries between the images based on pure image data in the panorama image generation part 40, connects the boundaries to one another to form a new joint photographic experts group (JPEG) image, and stores the JPEG image to the second storage part 50.
Here, when the plurality of still images are not consecutive, the boundaries of the generated JPEG image do not look smooth and natural, and accordingly, the new JPEG image also looks unnatural due to image capturing conditions which are respectively different.
In order to overcome the unnaturalness in the boundaries, a method has been suggested in which the digital imaging apparatus displays a part of a pre-captured image through a liquid crystal display (LCD) and then captures a new image, such that the boundaries of the new image correspond to the boundaries of the displayed image. However, since the distortion information of the lens varies in every case of image capturing, and the capturing conditions also vary according to objects, it is hard to create a natural-looking panorama image.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method for creating a natural-looking panorama image using still images, even in the case of nonconsecutive still images.